Condoleeza Rice, Indra Nooyi and Campbell Brown at the Women's Conference

Next up is the "Once-in-a-Lifetime Conversation with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCO!  It's all moderated by Campbell Brown from CNN!

Campbell jokes that she has to thank Maria because her makeup is shot!  She says it's because she's been crying for the past 20 minutes!  I'm with her on that one!

First question to Condi:  "Is there a glass ceiling for women?"  Dr. Rice says yes, but that it's changing very rapidly.  She says it's going to be shattered by girls who are have to see themselves as capable of math and engineering. 

Indra says yes, but it's glass and that means you can see through it and you can break it! 

Campbell asks about mentors and whether they had male mentors since they were in such male dominated professions.  Dr. Rice says that "It's ok to be the first.  If you constantly look for role models who look like you then you'll never be the first." 

"Yes it's ok to seek out role models and mentors but don't limit it to that.  Realize you can find your role models anywhere in any color and any gender."

Indra breaks it down and talks about how when a man presents at a meeting they go to the men's room and talk about it.  Men tell other men when they make mistakes.  But when women mess up, the women don't tell them and then the woman who messed up tears herself down.  Constructive advice from a woman is viewed more negatively than constructive advice from a man.

Indra wore a sari to one of her first interviews, not a business suit.  She says it's because she had no money to buy a business suit so she went to K-Mart and decided to buy a pantsuit.  She didn't want to try it on in public so she took it home without trying it on.  And so she had nothing else to wear!  She had to just be herself. 

Indra says that the United States is the only country where a meritocracy really exists and works. 

Condi says that students come in and really want to know how to be Secretary of State.  She jokes that she tells them that first you have to be a failed concert pianist!  The crowd really laughs over that!  She says she told her parents she was going to change her major and they were worried she was going to end up being a waitress!  She wandered into a class on Russian taught by Madeleine Albright's father and that was it!  She says don't let someone else determine what you should do or study based on what you look like or where you're from.

Campbell wants to know about sacrifices they've had to make.  Indra says that "Any women who reaches the kind of positions they're in has had to make trade offs.  She has two daughters, she's been married for 28 years but where she started and where she ended up doesn't connect.  No one in her family had ever left her country (India) and staying here in the States was a big deal. 

She's talking about her daughters and how they view her.  She says she's the only mom they know but she's sure they wishes she dressed differently

Condi addresses her singleness.  She says it's not because she was always working.  Instead, it's because, "I never met anybody I wanted to marry and live with.  That's why I'm single!"  LOL, Condi, I hear you!!!

She says her parents made a lot of sacrifices for her.  They didn't have a lot left in savings for their retirement because they'd invested everything in her.  So the trade offs her parents made were a lot tougher than the ones she's had to make.

Indra believes more should be done for working mothers.  THANK YOU, Indra for talking about how inadequate childcare is, maternity leave and how women don't really have flexible schedules!  She thinks corporations, not just government need to deal with it.  She says PepsiCo has on-site childcare and tremendous employee assistance programs. 

Campbell wants to know if this sort of thing is a focus for her as CEO because she's a woman.  Indra says as a CEO, if she was to say women's issues are her primary concern, she'd be lying, but she has a group who worries about women's issues.  "We make sure that those issues are brought to the CEO's attention and we address them"

Shares how they have a special group for women of color because they need special attention since they get discriminated on in different ways and so need more support. 

Campbell asks Condi about the dropout rates of girls of color.  Condi believes the state of education is a national security issue.  "It breaks my heart that there could be very talented kids that might be the next Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry... and they're trapped in some public school that's just basically warehousing them."  She says we won't be competititve in a global economy because we aren't producing engineers and scientists. 

Talks about meritocracy and how it's true but it's also part of our national myth, "You can be born in a log cabin and you can still be president, but what is it that makes that true?  Equal access to education." 

"The only thing that binds us together is that it does not matter where you came from.  What matters is where you're going."

Campbell notes how there hasn't been a lot of discussion about education on the campaign trail.  Condi shares how in her segregated schools she had teachers who would stay after school or tutor on Saturdays.  She says we don't need pity for children who are being under-educated but expectations for them and then we have to deliver on the tools to meet those expectations. 

Indra says that the status of women in the States is much better than in other parts of the world.  She believes things are really bad in Africa and even in Latin America, there's some but not as much.  She believes there's lots of progress in Singapore and China, but in India, there are some outspoken women but the record is mixed.

Condi says that the education for women in places like Afghanistan is really improving.  Interesting comparison:  Why would the Taliban not allow women to learn to read?  For the same reasons slaves weren't allowed to read.  She shares it's because then the sky becomes limitless. 

Condi talks about Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton and says it's no longer going to be a novelty to have a woman at the top of the ticket.  She thinks they're both terrific. 

Indra says, "Condi for President!" and the crowd really cheers!  I don't know.  My take from the body language on stage is sort of that Indra is a little skeptical of Condi.  Campbell asks her if she's ever going to run and she says no, she never even ran for student council in high school.  Instead she wants to go back to Stanford, write a book on foreign policy and write a book about her parents.  But most of all, she wants to work on issues of educational opportunity.  She wants to mobilize people... and hopefully play the piano more!

Whew, what a session!  For all you moms in California, how do you feel about Condi coming out here and doing stuff in education?

This is an original post to the Los Angeles Moms Blog.  Liz D. also blogs at Los Angelista.